My previous post drew some negative attention, and I realized there were significant ambiguities in my meaning. The following is a response to Mr. Gary Rubinstein’s comments (read them here: http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2012/07/31/what-they-teach-the-new-cms-about-public-vs-charter-schools/). Soon I will post a revision of the offending post that better expresses my thoughts and clarifies any misunderstandings.
Dear Mr. Rubinstein,
Thank you so much for your recent close reading and thoughtful criticism of my blog post entitled “It’s Not About You.” I’m a casual follower of your blog, and I really appreciate your fierce advocacy for students and education, though I don’t always agree with you. I’m more than a little shocked and embarrassed to find my own words a target for your critical lens, but I’m looking forward to the dialog. This reply is really long (sorry!), but I wanted to be as thorough as possible in my response. Incidentally, I didn’t realize my comments were disabled. I’m not…

In a speech sometime this summer, someone said something like “It’s not about you, but it’s all about you.” What I think he meant was that this achievement-gap-closing-teaching-working-hard-never-sleeping work isn’t FOR me. It’s not for my benefit or glory or vanity. But at the same time, more and more the research is showing that the…

There’s a lot to say about Institute, and I don’t think two blog posts can even really scratch the surface, but I plan to be done with the topic at the end of this post. Simply put, Institute is over. It’s time to focus on what lies ahead. At Institute, I learned a lot. By…

On Friday I said goodbye to my first group of students, and it was wonderful and sad and exhilarating and heartbreaking. They were fourth graders, and our class was reading and writing intensive (most of our students were significantly below grade level in their reading skills). So much happened this summer that it amazes me I only…

Since this is my first post, it seems appropriate that I get some TFA-speak things out of the way right away. I’ll start by introducing myself, establishing norms and culture, setting a vision for this blog and then maybe some reflection. About Me: I graduated from the University of Houston in December 2011. At UH…